Nothing On Our Side
by Fala-Li
Summary: Though the war was concluded, the growing rift between Cagali and Athrun was never repaired. Nearing her 20th bday,Cagalli is pressured to marry,and with Mey by Athruns side,she only feels defeated.Can Kira stand by and merely watch their mistakes?Asucaga
1. Chapter 1

This is, of course, an Athrun X Cagalli fiction. I absolutely LOVE that couple.

It was very sad how their conflicting ideas during the war tore their relationship apart, and thusly it made it very hard for me to try to figure out the process of getting them back together. I hear some people think he ended up with Meyrin... but I never saw him giving her an engagement ring or smooching her left and right. I do think Meyrin has feelings for him, and I think it's his inability to use his brain that gets him into messes, because he is far too nice to the girls who try to get with him. (meer, for example...)

Anyways. Forgive me for typos, spelling mistakes, etc... I am usually up fairly late when I get the chance to type, and I don't have a Beta... And it's hard for me to find my own errors. D Hope you enjoy

Read and review. :)

--

Distant rumbles of voices reached past the young man's ears as he stood leaning slightly on his left leg, posture fairly patient as he waited for his companion to emerge from the changing room she had disappeared into with armfuls of clothes.

Athrun Zala adjusted the thick sunglasses on his face awkwardly, the only motion he had made to give away the fact that no matter how many times he was dragged into a girls' clothing department, he would always feel out of place.

Two voices slowly grew in volume as their inevitable approach ensued. Athrun could detect that both were female – one younger, shrill with frustration, the other significantly older and chiding.

"-as well pick out ones you prefer! You are going to have to wear them despite your preference for unflattering and bland clothes!"

The younger feminine voice gave out a disgruntled, high-pitched moan. "I still don't see why it's necessary for me to be dolled up like some… some… some pansy milksop woman trying to impress a bunch of moronic men!"

A slightly plump woman Athrun supposed was in her late forties rounded the corner at that moment, holding two floor-length dresses in her hands by their hangers. Her eyes brightened as she spotted the young dark haired man before her, the sharp retort on her lips dying.

"Now here is a sweet young man! Tell me, from a boy's opinion – which do you think would look better on a beautiful girl?" the woman questioned innocently enough as she jabbed the two dresses in his direction.

At that moment, a petite blond figure rounded the corner that had previously separated her from sight, her face contorted into a cringe as she moaned out, "Oh, don't tell me you're torturing some guy who's probably already stuck in here with a-"

The words died in the nineteen-year-old girl's mouth as her widened brown eyes examined the blue-haired young man before her, whose posture was now rigid as a stone, expression hidden behind all too familiar sunglasses.

Athrun found himself face-to-face with Cagalli Yula Athha.

For once, Cagalli found herself speechless as she stared at the man who had dropped out of her life upon the end of the war as if on a hidden cue. A wrenching, tightening feeling in her chest made it suddenly entirely to hard to breathe.

The woman holding the dresses seemed oblivious to the tense interaction, her gaze still swinging between the two dresses in her hands, indecisiveness sprawling across her frown.

"Athrun…."

Though barely whispered, the name reached his ears from Cagalli's slightly parted lips, and one of his hands tightened into a fist as he turned his eyes away from the wavering brown ones peering with shock into his own. How many months had it been since he had last heard that voice call his name?

It seemed almost as if he had forgotten what it sounded like when Cagalli spoke his name with that tremble to it, that wavering of her voice that he knew belonged only to the emotional, vulnerable girl he had once guarded with his own life.

"Athrun!" Cagalli seemed to shake slightly out of her reverie at the beautiful and hauntingly familiar voice that called out just before a slender frame with two pink pigtails appeared a matter of feet behind the man whose name she had called. Meyrin first saw the older woman holding the dresses and smiled politely, until her gaze found the frozen figure in the background.

The two young women stared at each other, blond against red, brown against gray, both with widened eyes that were absent of any sort of loathing or ill intent. Instead, they both seemed to be instantly filled with an eerie sense of heartbreak that left them in a confused pit of broken emotion.

"The blue one. It brings out her eyes."

Cagalli's head snapped back to Athrun as the even, truthful comment left his mouth. She watched as he turned around and strode away, only pausing to nod at Meyrin and giving her a mere moment to catch up with him.

The red-haired girl gave a courteous nod to Cagalli before following after Athrun, reaching out to touch his elbow with one hand before they disappeared together around a corner.

As the woman holding the dresses turned around to hold up the garmet Athrun had wisely chosen, she witnessed a sight that left her stunned, as it was something she had never before beheld.

Cagalli Yula Athha dropped to her knees, gripping the ring finger of her left hand, and began to sob without restraint, tears flowing down pinkened cheeks and falling to the carpet.


	2. Chapter 2

Cagalli folded her hands on her lap, lips quirked into a pensive frown. "You know, it's actually important to read the author's notes. She posts them because they usually explain important things about her story,

but it seems as if a lot of people don't read them, and then they end up asking her questions in their reviews that were already answered in the authors notes at the beginning of the chapter. So, let's read the authors notes so that the author doesnt get frustrated and throw herself off a cliff, thus prematurely ending the story, okay?"

...Seriously though, I usually post important info up here.

so I realized, thanks to a reviewer (thank you, Milisante :) ) that Meyrin's eyes aren't a beautiful green like Athrun's... I had to go open an episode, to which I realized, I did not only butcher her eye color (which is gray) but also her hair color. I think I got the color confused with her sister... so sorry about that, it's now fixed. D

This is the longest chapter I have EVER written in any of my stories, so I hope it's cherished, because it's very unlikely that it will ever happen again. D

--

_"No matter how many times they are blown away…_

…_.we will continue to replant the flowers."_

A statement that, upon the last time Athrun had set foot at the memorial, had sent Shinn into tears. One that held true, as the wind threatened to tangle strands of his dark blue hair, though he hardly noticed as he stood with hands at his side, staring at the simple slab of rock before him.

It wasn't merely a colorful array of planted flowers that now extended around the memorial; several fresh bouquets were laid upon the stone as well. Athrun bent over, gently placing the own flowers he had brought with him amongst the others.

His reverie was broken by the distant and yet approaching sound of soft footfalls. Although he recognized that people were nearing long before they were within speaking distance, he remained standing as he had been, memories and thoughts crawling into his mind at a rapid rate.

"I thought that we would find you here," came a soft, gentle voice that registered as a slight shock to Athrun.

Knowing somehow that the statement had been addressed to him, he turned, finding two smiling figures pausing a short distance away from him. Lacus' long pink hair flowed in the wind that had been tangling his own, the same breeze that sent Kira's soft brown bangs up into odd angles.

"Athrun," Kira greeted, purple-gray eyes seeming to withhold a smile of their own.

As she had done months before at the end of the second war, Lacus passed by Athrun to set down an armful of pink and white blooming flowers next to the ones the former ZAFT soldier had just laid on the stone.

"Kira… Lacus," he replied, his voice still portraying a remnant of his surprise at seeing them unexpectedly. "I guess this week is just full of coincidences," Athrun muttered to himself with a dry hint of laughter.

"On the contrary," Lacus stated, tilting her head to smile at him once again as she resumed her place beside Kira. "We were personally searching you out. I do not believe that was Cagalli's intent when you ran into her the other day."

Green eyes widened slightly, then narrowed. "How did…?"

Kira's eyes drew down slightly then as his smile took on a tinge of sadness. "Why don't you visit her, Athrun?"

Frowning, Athrun lifted his hand that had been holding his sunglasses, sliding them back onto his face and brushing loose strands of hair out of the way. "Is there another reason you were looking for me, or was it just that?"

"Cagalli's twentieth birthday is in two weeks. With the war going on, we missed the chance to celebrate her nineteenth. I think it would mean a lot to her if you were to patch things up with her beforehand so you might attend with the rest of us," Lacus explained evenly, her face losing some of its mirth and turning a bit more serious.

Kira noticed, then, that Athrun's free hand was clenched into a tight fist, nails digging into his palms.

"What is it that is keeping the two of you apart?" Kira questioned calmly.

"The war?" Lacus continued for him. "Your differing ideals? Are you going to let that come between what the two of you have had? Are you truly going to let that keep two people who were so close together from seeing each other again?"

"She agreed to marry Yuna Roma without even telling me first!" The words were out of Athrun's mouth before he could stop them.

A small smile of satisfaction appeared on Lacus' face then. Finally, they were getting somewhere.

"And what do you think the expression on my sister's face looked like when I kidnapped her from her wedding?" Kira questioned, solemn face measuring his best friend's reaction.

"Or even better," Lacus started again, "how do you think she felt in that car, driving towards a wedding she was more-so shoved into, with someone that wasn't you?"

Shoving his hands into his pockets, Athrun turned his head to the side with a wry smile. "I heard," he replied evenly, "that she was smiling and waving."

"Yes." Lacus' retort was short. "Indeed. She smiled and waved the entire car ride to the crowd lining the sides of the road to greet the couple that was soon to be wed."

Reaching into her pocket, Lacus pulled out a small, rectangular piece of paper and moved forward, handing it out to Athrun in one small, delicate hand. Although he frowned at her, Athrun reached out to take it from her, not being able to deny a slight curiosity at what it might be.

"Why don't you take a look at her smiling face?" Lacus offered, and as Athrun began to turn the piece of paper over, he realized it was a photo.

"Miriallia somehow managed to get as close to world events as she always has," Kira explained, and by the quality of the picture in his hands, Athrun didn't doubt that Miriallia had been the one to take it.

Athrun had often wondered what Cagalli might have looked like in preparation for her wedding, and by the photo, he could see that she had been as stunning and amazingly elegant as he had imagined.

With a wry twist to his lips, he took a scarce moment to examine the veil she wore attached to her hair – the makeup that he had only seen once or twice before gracing her face. The lips that were turned up in a gracious smile worthy of a princess as she lifted one hand to wave to the waiting crowd.

Athrun was about to turn the picture face-down again and hand it back to Lacus when he caught sight of a glimmering streak across Cagalli's face.

He realized, then, as he stared closely at it, that they were her tears. Streaming down her face from both eyes, managing somehow to avoid smearing her makeup. Had Miriallia not obtained such an up-close shot, the tears would never have been visible.

"Do those look to be tears of happiness to you, Athrun?" Lacus inquired in that soft voice that could sometimes rise to a commanding height when need be.

If it had been anyone else staring at the picture, they might have. But like Kira and Lacus, Athrun knew Cagalli – knew what Cagalli's expression was when she cried out of sorrow, recognized the angle to her watery eyes, the drawn down quivering of her eyebrows, the trembling lips that signified it all. That picture wasn't a happy woman crying before her wedding; it was a distraught, heartbroken girl.

"She already apologized to me. What do you want me to do?"

"I think if you didn't care, Athrun Zala," Lacus started in a quiet voice, "that you would have taken that ring back a long time ago. And if we didn't care, we might have been the ones to return it to you."

Athrun's eyebrows narrowed in deep thought as he scrutinized the couple before him. "What do you mean?"

"When Cagalli was bullied into marrying Yuna, she managed to send a letter to me with your ring inside of it. She asked me to return it to you," Kira clarified, noticing that the thick sunglasses on Athrun's face couldn't mask the hint of pain that surfaced at the words.

Athrun opened his mouth to reply, but Lacus cut him off before he could. "And what do you think we found on the inside of that letter, Athrun?" His mouth snapped shut, though he didn't look happy about it.

"The ink was streaked with her tears. It was obvious to both of us that such a decision was probably the hardest one she had been forced to make in her life, and that doing so would be a regret she would harbor solely on her own. That is why we could not allow her to make such a mistake."

"But she-"

"Don't you think it's time for you to say those words to Cagalli, instead of us?" Kira interrupted.

"If you want to yell at her, yell at her. If you want to argue with her, argue with her," Lacus stated, gesturing with her hands as she spoke. "If you want to ask her why she did what she did, then ask her. But nothing will be solved if you merely continue to ask us or yourself instead."

Flexing his hands at his sides, Athrun examined Lacus beneath the shade of his glasses. Two years ago, the pink-haired beauty had stood before him and spoke in such a commanding and regal voice much like the one she was using now.

She had stood before him and, within the span of moments, confirmed the doubts that Athrun had already been harboring in his mind and forced him to make the final decisions over what was wrong and right in his mind. In the end, it turned out that Lacus' insistence had been correct; could it be the same now?

"Cagalli has an hour of free time tomorrow between meetings. She'll meet you here," Kira handed Athrun yet another piece of paper with an address scribbled quickly on it, "two hours after noon."

"Meyrin-"

"-Is going shopping with me tomorrow afternoon," Lacus filled in easily, beaming up at Athrun with her innocent round eyes.

Frowning, Athrun regarded Kira and Lacus with almost a glower on his face.

"And Athrun," Lacus tucked a piece of hair behind one ear as she spoke, "there are two more things we're here to tell you."

At that moment, tiny green mechanical wings flapped against the air as Torii landed on Kira's shoulder; the brown-haired Coordinator lifted up one finger, and the bird hopped onto it in a practiced manner.

"The pressure on Cagalli to secure a politically advantageous marriage is becoming immense," Lacus began, and Pink-chan took that moment to add in, _"I won't accept it! I won't accept it!"_

The songstress took a minute to hush the pink ball before continuing. "I believe she has found that Yuna Roma is not the only man in her life to take an interest in her."

"Why are you telling me this?" Athrun interrupted suddenly.

"The wars are over," Lacus filled in. "Don't you think we all deserve to be happy?"

"What makes you think I'm not happy?" Athrun interjected, green eyes flashing beneath his sunglasses.

"What about Cagalli's happiness?" Kira brought up without pause.

Lacus raised one hand, always the mediator. "And the second thing we have left to tell you, Athrun, has absolutely nothing to do with the matter of marriage, so you may relax now."

Kira and Athrun continued to stare at each other despite Lacus' intervention, their faces matching each other in solemnity.

"There was an attempt on Cagalli's life yesterday. Someone came at her with a knife," Kira recited slowly, his expression tightening with worry. "If it wasn't for her experience, I don't think Cagalli would have managed. Her assailant got away before anyone could realize what had happened."

Athrun felt his hands unclench instantly at what they were telling him, falling slack. "How has this not been all over the media?"

Both figures in front of him smile ruefully, then. "The few people around when it occurred were sworn into silence by Cagalli. But Mana came to us in concern," Lacus told him patiently.

"And you're coming to me with this why?"

"That, Athrun, is entirely for you to decide. Do with it what you will." With that final comment, Lacus put her hand on Kira's arm.

The brown-haired young man nodded to Athrun before turning and striding away, leaving the blue-haired Coordinator to stare at the papers they had placed into his hands.

--

The next day started out with a chattering and happy Meyrin, who was fueled with excitement over having another chance to go shopping with Lacus. Athrun watched with a small, bemused smile as the young woman took her red hair out of pigtails, choosing instead to leave it down against her shoulders, and rushed to find an appropriate outfit to wear before leaving hurriedly with a friendly wave and a goodbye.

After that, Athrun was left in silence to decide what exactly he was going to do with the information he had been given yesterday.

However, the decision-making didn't last long, because before he knew it, he was standing in front of the shops that Kira had given him directions to, hands in his pocket and hoping that Cagalli hadn't gained a sudden affection for window-shopping.

He took a seat at one of the tables that made a small outdoor lounge in front of the shops, and began to wait.

Time seemed to tick by, and when Athrun glanced at his watch again, it was half an hour after the designated time Kira had told him. Despite it being unwarranted, an eerie sense of worry began to creep up his senses, and as he lowered the wrist with the watch on it, his cell phone went off.

A quick look at the phone's display showed it was Kira; Athrun answered it, lifting it to his ear.

"Athrun?" Lacus' voice could be heard in the background, and by the tone of Kira's voice, Athrun instantly knew that something was wrong. "The person who attacked Cagalli came back today."

A pause as Kira moved his mouth away from the phone to say something to Lacus, and then, "Cagalli's been shot."

--

Familiar doors and hallways flew past Athrun as he rushed through the building, heading towards a specific destination in his mind. Shocked servants stared as the young man gave heed to nothing, only one thought on his mind.

_Cagalli's been shot._

Gritting his teeth, Athrun turned one last corner, coming up to the front of Cagalli's chambers. A brunette woman raised her head at his approach, eyes widening slightly at the severe look on Athrun's face as he neared the doorway.

"The Representative is having her bandages changed right now," she stated modestly, blocking the doorway from him.

"Thank you," Athrun replied, as politely as possible. "Now, if you'll let me by."

The woman's eyes grew even larger, if possible. "As I've said, the Representative isn't properly attired at the moment-"

"It's nothing I haven't seen her in or out of before. Move aside," Athrun stated easily enough, the slightly crude comment making the woman gasp with outrage.

With a marked ease, Athrun used one arm to brush the woman aside, ignoring her astonished shouts and flowing through the doorway before slamming it closed behind him. The sight before him, on any other occasion, might have made him laugh.

Mana and Cagalli were ensuing a game of tug-of-war with one of Cagalli's business suits; Mana had been in the middle of exclaiming, "It's the dress for you! No more business suits to dinner!" when Athrun burst into the room.

Four wide eyes and two open mouths met his gaze, hands freezing their tugging movements and the business suit going slack in their grasp.

Athrun's eyes, however, were occupied roaming Cagalli's body, momentarily ignoring her lack of attire to search for her injury. He found it at her waist; a thick bandage was wrapped to her side, a small spot of blood showing through it.

Relief flooded into him, followed by fury; how could Kira have not explained that the bullet had only hit her in the side? When he had heard Kira speak in such a serious tone, he had thought it would be so much worse…

"Mana, good to see you," Athrun greeted. "Can you leave us for a moment, please?"

Her mouth working like a fish, Mana swung her gaze between Cagalli and Athrun, appearing as if she might start shouting obscenities at Athrun for barging into the room when Cagalli was in nothing but her undergarments.

Cagalli, however, had her sight fixed solely on Athrun's. Slowly, she nodded. "It's alright, Mana. Leave, please."

Looking on the verge of shock, Mana reluctantly complied and closed the door behind her, leaving Athrun and Cagalli staring at each other, one bewildered, one trying to calm his fury.

As if suddenly realizing that she only wore a small pair of underwear and a strapless bra, Cagalli grasped the business shirt in her hands and held it up against her check to cover what she could. "What are you doing here?" she asked quickly.

Swallowing the nervous lump in his throat and feeling his face light up with a slight blush, Athrun closed the distance between them and brushed the garment Cagalli held out of the way to examine her waist. "Kira told me you'd… that someone…" he started, finding himself suddenly unable to form a sentence.

"Ah," she responded, hoping the words didn't sound half as nervous as she felt, "the bullet only grazed my waist. It was a deep graze, and it bled a lot, so they got pretty worked up about it, but it's fine. Mana was just going to change my bandage. It's nothing, really."

Everything seemed to catch up with them all at once, then, the months that had passed by without any contact with each other, over half a year absent of any resolution to the shreds that were left of their relationship.

For a moment, the room was utterly still and silent as they regarded one another. And then, at the same time, both yelled out in angry and frustrated tones.

"Why did you-"

"Why didn't you-"

Both snapped their mouths closed as they realized they had spoken simultaneously. Silence resumed once again, slight pink blushes still on each of their faces.

"You go ahead," Cagalli muttered in a disgruntled tone, a familiar pout on her face.

"No," Athrun protested, "I interrupted… you…"

"Just say it!"

"Fine."

Silence.

"Why did you accept Yuna Roma's proposal while I was gone?"

"Why didn't you come back?!" Cagalli shot in retort, raising her voice in frustration.

"Why didn't you at least tell me before you agreed to marry him?" Athrun questioned in return, his voice rising in volume as well.

"Why didn't you contact me at all when you got into space again?!"

"Why did you send the ring I gave you to Kira to have him return it to me?!"

"Why didn't you say anything to me when I put your ring back on again?? You just ignored the fact it was there and walked off!"

"Why did you put the ring back on if you were going to marry someone else?"

"What? You didn't want me to put the ring back on? Well, you just could have told me, then!"

"And you could have asked!"

Had either paused to take a breath, they would have heard the muffled mumble of voices that signified that a slight crowd was gathering outside of Cagalli's bedroom door. Both Athrun and Cagalli had raised their voices to obnoxiously loud shouts, their angry tones attracting a significant amount of attention from outside.

"Could have asked what?? You're the one that gave it to me in the first place, and then left!"

"I left to protect you and your country!"

"And you left me all alone!"

"You weren't alone! You had Kira!"

"Yeah! You're right! Because Kira was the one that saved me from a wedding I would have grown to regret, wasn't he? Not you, Kira!"

"What would you have expected me to do?!"

"I don't know!"

"I don't know either!"

"Well, maybe you should have figured it out!"

"If I-" The words died in Athrun's mouth as a glint of silver caught his eye. With her last shouted exclamation, Cagalli had thrown down the arm which had been previously holding the clothing against her chest, revealing a slender silver chain around her neck.

But it wasn't the chain that caught Athrun's eyes; it was the small, delicate silver ring which had been slipped onto the chain, resting a few inches below Cagalli's neck, a small red gem encased in the center of it.

"Cagalli…you…" Following his line of vision, Cagalli let out a choked gasp and swept the article of clothing back up against her chest, covering the necklace from sight once again.

The action may have hid the ring Athrun had given her, but it couldn't hide her unguarded expression from his searching eyes.

Much like the evening when Miriallia had set up a meeting at Athrun's request between himself, Kira, and Cagalli, Athrun found his eyes revealing a torrent rage of emotions at seeing her once again wearing his ring, if in a different place then before.

When they had last hugged goodbye, he had noticed the absence of the ring on her finger, and yet he had taken her into his arms in an embrace that brought a genuine smile to his face. He had assumed that she had taken it off, that she simply didn't wear it any more and had disregarded it.

But to see her wearing it on a necklace instead?

Cagalli turned away from his piercing gaze, mouth set in a line. "It's just… I didn't…."

Spinning away from her without warning, Athrun turned his back on her. "I'm glad… to see you're alright."

The door shut behind him much more gently than it had when he entered, but not before the momentarily widely opened doorway gave everyone in the hall a good view of a very mute and shocked Cagalli standing in nothing but her underwear and bra.

What small crowd had formed dissipated quickly at Athrun's arrival, leaving two figures standing against the wall.

"See?" Lacus stated reassuringly. "Didn't I tell you it was better to yell if you wanted to, then to say nothing at all?"

Kira merely frowned, giving Athrun a quick glance before swinging open Cagalli's door and entering without a single word to them. Athrun stood, one shoulder to the doorway and one to Lacus, eyesight fixed on his former fiancé and trying his best not to glance back at the room he had left.

"Meyrin?" Athrun asked simply, feeling entirely too drained all of the sudden and not up for extended conversation. Lacus pointed down the hallway, and Athrun turned his back on her as well, rounding the corner to find an anxious Meyrin sitting on a bench.

The red-head leapt to her feet when she saw him, concern etched across her face. "Is she alright?"

Ignoring the question, Athrun swept past her, angrily shoving his hands into his pockets and pausing for a short moment to allow Meyrin to catch up before striding off again.


	3. Chapter 3

WARNING. I ran a 13 mile marathon yesterday, and therefore my brain is not functioning at full capacity. I managed to get this chapter up in the 20 minutes of consciousness that I have between waking up, drinking water, and being so exhausted that I go back to sleep. 13 miles apparently puts quite a strain on the body. P

I also had technical difficulties... I type on my laptop, and normally I have internet access so I can upload it from my laptop to fanfic net. However, I'm up north applying for college, and so I had to use a flash drive to export the chapter to my mother's computer and upload it from there.

But her computer wouldnt read the word document as a file... So I ended up having to RETYPE this ENTIRE chapter, looking at the laptop screen and typing it onto this computer.

So, therefore, it is NOT edited. I am way too exhausted and dehydrated to even attempt editing it, although I might come back and try tomorrow.

So please excuse what I am sure will be a horrendous amount of typos and strange sentences. oO Thanks.

--

"Are you sure about this, Meyrin?" Athrun questioned worriedly, uncertainty tingeing his voice as he strapped the second gun holster onto his shoulder over the top of his green turtleneck.

"It… It's important to you, isn't it?" she replied in her mellow, amiable voice as she adjusted the band underneath her breasts, slipping the gun into the space between them. "I may not be as good of a shot as you… but I'm better than my sister."

Shrugging into his jacket and fastening the clasp, Athrun patted his chest to make sure the weapons were properly concealed before turning to face Kira.

The brown-haired Coordinator smiled gently, his large gray eyes warming his gaze. "She wouldn't allow anyone else to constantly be watching her back. If someone else were to do it, she would think we were babying her," Kira commented, a statement that everyone would easily agree to.

"Cagalli is stubborn like that," Athrun concurred, only realizing afterwards how easily he had spoken the words, as if he had never left the blond's side.

He looked up to find both Meyrin and Kira staring at him, one slightly bemused, the other appearing somewhat mystified.

--

Athrun held onto the doorway for a moment, taking a few seconds to examine Cagalli's figure as she stood against the window on the far side of the room past the dining table.

The morning sunlight illuminated the blonde's slender figure, which had been fitted with a snug floor-length dress. Its flowing skirt swept up in folds as she turned, and Athrun hurried to raise himself from his leaning position so it wouldn't appear as if he had been watching her.

Cagalli took a few steps forward before she caught sight of Athrun; when she did, she hesitated, expression slightly shocked as she regarded the young man standing before her. A familiar green turtleneck was partly cloaked by a black and white jacket that she had last seen when she had still worn his ring on her finger.

It was then that Athrun paid more heed to the dress she was wearing, and was brought to a stunning realization.

For the dress that tightly spun around Cagalli's figure was a clearly recognizable deep blue that brought a breathtaking attention to her shimmering dark brown eyes. The same one which a woman had held up a few days ago beside another gown and asked for Athrun's opinion.

"That dress…" he started, finding himself at a further loss for words as he noted the way that Cagalli's upswept hair left a few loose strands of delicate curls touching against her bare next. That, combined with the fact that she had chosen the outfit he had advised her to…

Curling both hands into her skirt, Cagalli glanced down, a blush lighting up her face as she realized the connection Athrun had made. "Ah," she stuttered, eyes wandering around the room nervously, "it's just… you said… so… I thought, since I'm not good at choosing dresses…"

Athrun couldn't help the smile that formed on his face, the grin that came from the inner mirth swelling up in him at the stuttering, blushing young woman before him.

And he figured, then, that it was the same mysterious force that drove the two of them together in the first place; that irrevocable attraction to each other's personalities and quirks, to the warmth that came from being close to witness each other's actions. For Athrun knew better than anyone Cagalli's tendencies and impulses – knew and tolerated, and had stood by her side under the alias of a bodyguard because of that knowledge and understanding.

Trying to remove the inevitable blush that he felt rising to his cheeks, Athrun moved forward so he was standing within a few feet of her. "It… it looks good. It suits you."

Cagalli's eyes widened slightly, her cheeks deepening to a reddish hue as she stammered out a failed response, hands still tugging at her skirt self-consciously. But after a moment, their blushes faded, and their eyes wandered to the floor in front of them.

"The way it came out, before… I didn't mean it that way," Athrun stated suddenly, and Cagalli tried to wrack her mind for what he could possibly be referring to.

When he chanced a look up, it was to see a puzzled expression and curiously narrowed brown eyes. Clearing his throat, he tried to find his voice beneath the growing lump in his throat.

"When I asked you why you put the ring back on," he clarified, and Cagalli's hands clenched into fists in the fabric of her skirt, leaving impressions on the fabric. "I didn't… I didn't mean that I didn't want you to put it back on. I didn't mean that I wanted you to take it off. That wasn't what I was asking."

One look with honest green eyes into Cagalli's own brown orbs, and Athrun slid onto his face the sunglasses he had been holding in his hand. Cagalli noted the action, and wondered if Athrun could have possibly taken his shades off in the first place to merely speak to her with his face clearly bared.

"Before… when you apologized for not telling me… I really did forgive you. It's just…"

The words he left out were unspoken, but somehow heard all the same.

Although there had been an apology before, and an acceptance, there was still so much that had been left unsaid burning through both of their minds, words they had wanted so badly to speak but were never able to find the time or the place to do so.

Somehow, Cagalli felt a small smile growing on her lips, and as Athrun regarded her from the corner of his eyes, he found that Cagalli's eyes were a bit more watery than usual.

Shaking his head and still doing the best to expel his blush, Athrun put one hand against the small of Cagalli's back and nudged her slightly with it. "Let's go; we'll be late. You have a guest to meet for breakfast, right?"

As they walked, Athrun was careful to keep his hand away from the side of her waist that had been wounded, finding that the memory of the injury brought up disturbing thoughts of the fact that someone was out there trying to seriously injure or kill Cagalli.

"Does it hurt?" he questioned quietly, waiting for the petite blond to figure out what he was referring to.

A very familiar stubborn, defiant look grew on her face, then. "Of course not. It's just a little scratch." Resisting another smile, Athrun nodded in response, but suddenly his features drew down as another thought came to him.

"But it wasn't meant to be just a scratch, was it?" he asked rhetorically, watching Cagalli's face grow solemn.

When he wasn't given a response, Athrun observed Cagalli's sullen face and tried to concentrate on where they were going through the hallways. "Meyrin came as well. She's here posing as one of your close friends visiting." He lowered his voice, then, to further assure nobody else would hear. "We're both armed."

Despite the guiding hand that had remained on her back, Cagalli's feet stopped, then, causing Athrun to halt beside her. "What is it?"

Another slight pout formed on her face, then, a thoughtful one, of befuddled curiosity, and Cagalli began to fidget with her skirt once again. "It's just… I was wondering," she began, shifting her gaze between his eyes and the floor. "Why are you here?"

The hand he had been using to keep contact with Cagalli went slack, and after a moment, returned to his side. Athrun stared intently at her for a moment, his eyes only slightly visible behind his shades, and then he took a few steps forward, putting some distance between them.

As Cagalli frowned at his back, he turned his head slightly so she could view the profile of his face.

"Because whether you still believe it or not," he stated clearly, face still visible only from the side, "I care. About you."

--

Athrun wasn't sure what he had expected when Kira had informed him that the first thing Cagalli was attending to that morning would be a formal breakfast. But one thing Athrun was certain of was that the last thing he had thought to see when they walked in that door was a young man seated at a table next to Meyrin, the two engaged in polite conversation.

Athrun realized in that moment the reason that the man must be there; one of the "politically advantegous" candidates that Cagalli was supposed to be considering for marriage.

Meyrin was doing a remarkable job of displaying her modestly cut yet strapless light blue dress, and despite the awkward yet faint blush on her face, seemed to be quite comfortable even in the presence of someone she didn't know.

Cagalli slipped into her representative attitude then, politely going to Meyrin's side and introducing her as an old friend. Meanwhile, Athrun took a minute to observe the subtle ways the blond had matured since he had last seen her. The simple things, such as the commanding tone in her voice, the practiced gestures.

But then he took notice of something entirely different. The young man had the audacity to not so subtly stare at Meyrin when Cagalli had her head turned, and Athrun felt a grimace growing on his face; if the man was Cagalli's potential suitor, how could he have the gall to be eyeing one of her 'close' friends?

Athrun took his place at the table beside Cagalli, ignoring the pointed glance that came his way by a man dressed far fancier than he was.

He could read the questions and objections clearly in the other man's eyes, as if they had been spoken out loud. That was one of the advantages of wearing sunglasses over his face; it allowed him to observe other people without them knowing exactly what the object of his scrutiny was.

_What is a person like that doing here?_

_Why is _he _with Cagalli? Dressed like _that_?_

It took only a moment for Cagalli to catch on to the fact that there were stray eyes fixated on Athrun; with a stammered apology, she gestured to him, smiling.

"This is another friend of mine; At…" She trailed off for a moment as she wondered in a panicked sense whether Athrun would want to resume his old alias of "Alex", or if he preferred to now use his own name.

But he spared her further confusion by cutting in right as she trailed off, leaving the sentence completed without pause. "Athrun Zala."

That day ingrained the knowledge in Athrun's mind that the only reason Cagalli was wearing a dress was due to the fact that she was meeting with dates. Although he had seen her swathed in gowns a few seldom times before, this somehow seemed to irk him in a way he couldn't quite comprehend.

As they met with one after another pompous young men whom Cagalli seemed to already be somewhat acquainted with, Athrun stole occasional glances at the thin silver chain dangling past Cagalli's collarbones. It was precisely the perfect length for the chain to disappear into the top of her dress, masking from view the ring on the end of it.

He wondered what could posses her to continue wearing it even when marriage was being thrown into her field of limited options. Whether she would discard it soon. Whether she might continue to wear it for some reason he might never be privy to.

Cagalli, meanwhile, gave her best attempt to concentrate on the man she was chatting with over the table. But despite her best efforts, she couldn't stop her wayward brown eyes from shifting to the profile of Athrun's face, even finding herself missing pieces of the conversation when her gaze lingered too long.

--

An exhausting seven hours later, Meyrin retired to take off the uncomfortable dress she had been wearing all day, leaving Athrun to follow Cagalli as she made her way back to her room.

Athrun stopped at the door when Cagalli poked her way into her room, head turning as she called out, "Mana?"

When no response came, Cagalli's figure disappeared into the room to search out the older woman. Athrun waited patiently by the door, just about to lean against the wall when a hand snaked through the doorway and yanked him into the room, closing the door behind him.

The blue-haired man blinked down at a disgruntled and somewhat abashed Cagalli, who was gazing up at him through her thick eyelashes, a slight frown on her face.

Turning her back to him, the blond gestured to the line of zippers and hooks that fastened the back of her dress. "Can you help me out of this torturous device?" she grumbled, grimacing over her shoulder. "It's really damn uncomfortable! I'm not about to wait for Mana!"

Athrun's eyes widened slightly at the request, and Cagalli scrunched her nose, her face growing sullen. "I have another little dress thing underneath it anyway! Come on, just undo it before I rip it off and ruin it. Please?"

Though he hesitated a moment, Athrun reluctantly complied. Unused to the fastenings of a woman's dress, his fingers fumbled over the hooks before he figured out how to undo the miniscule clamps.

He paused awkwardly before pulling down the zipper, relieved to find Cagalli's word was true by the time he had to unfasten the second clasp; she was wearing a white shift underneath.

Once the dress was unzipped all the way, Cagalli quickly wriggled out of it, making Athrun's face light up with a tinge of a blush as he politely averted his head to give her privacy.

But something in the way Cagalli's hand moved instantly to her side made Athrun turn his head back around to see her clasping fingers against her shift, where blood stained the white fabric of it.

Athrun started forward, removing her hand and examining it with a displeased expression.

"Is that why you were 'uncomfortable'?" he repeated, quoting her deceivingly vague choice of words in a low, displeased tone.

Cagalli made a strange face at him, _hmph_ing and putting her opposite hand on her hip in a gesture of protest.

A strangled yelp left her mouth when Athrun grasped the bottom of her shift's skirt in one hand and began to lift it up; modestly, she threw both of her hands on it, pushing it back down.

"What are you doing, idiot??" she questioned in an embarrassed voice tinged with frustration.

"If it's bleeding that much, the bandage obviously needs to be changed," Athrun replied in an even voice, as if it were perfectly normal. "You've bandaged my waist before; it won't kill you to let me do the same. Like you said earlier, it's not worth waiting for Mana."

"But…well… it's…" Stuttering, Cagalli continued to grip the bottom of the skirt, biting one lip awkwardly.

"It's not like we haven't been in such a situation before," Athrun commented, the blush reigniting his face and instantly Cagalli's too as she realized his reference to the time they were stranded together on the island, their clothes hanging to dry and leaving her in a state of fair undress. Not to mention how he had burst in on her the other day…

They finally came to an agreement that while Athrun left to the ajoining bathroom to retrieve the medical supplies and bandages, Cagalli would have her privacy to remove the shift.

Athrun figured that perhaps as a man, he didn't understand how it made a difference whether or not he was there when the process of her actually removing the clothing occurred, but if it made Cagalli feel better, he would comply.

But when he returned to the room with supplies in hand, glimpsing Cagalli in her underwear for the second time that week, Athrun was forced to acknowledge what he had managed to ignore upon last seeing her unclothed.

Years had passed since they had sat undressed in a cave together while their clothes hung to dry. And during those years, both of them had developed and matured, and although Athrun had blushed at seeing her in such a way before, his reaction nearly three years later wasn't turning out to be so mild.

Swallowing past the rapid pulse in his throat, Athrun tried to even the expression on his face as he strode up to Cagalli, who was giving him the most curious look from her deep brown eyes that made it even harder to ignore the impulses he was already battling.

--

I think I've been reading too many romance novels.. P

Review, please.


	4. Chapter 4

_I shouldn't have to fight for something that's already mine..._

…_But her pursuit of you has undermined my peace of mind…._

--

As Athrun's fingers swept gently over the soft, creamy skin of Cagalli's stomach, the blond tried and failed to smother yet another flinch. Pausing in his ministrations, Athrun fixed his piercing green eyes on her face, frowning.

"I'm sorry. I'm trying to be careful."

Waving her hands, Cagalli wished for the umpteenth time that she could hide the blush in her cheeks. "No, you're not.. I mean, you… uhm, you're not hurting me. It's just…"

As he resumed tying the bandage, and his knuckles brushed against her stomach, Athrun realized what was causing the tremors.

He couldn't help that one corner of his mouth tugged upwards. "I wasn't aware you were so ticklish."

Leaning over slightly, Cagalli flicked him on the forehead. The gesture caused the thin, linked chain around her neck to arch downwards with her as she bent towards him. Neither noticed that the necklace brushed against Athrun's head in the process.

As Cagalli went to straighten, three things happened simultaneously; the necklace caught in a strand of Athrun's hair, tugging Cagalli back downwards, and yanking Athrun's head upwards.

Her chin collided with his forehead, and a sharp _crack _resounded through the room as they both did their best to vie for balance.

In the end, neither won against the fight for gravity; through the splitting ache in his head, not even Athrun with his quick reflexes managed to steady himself before he went tumbling to the ground, Cagalli following close behind.

He did, however, manage to grip her waist so that she wouldn't fall on her side and further damage her wound.

And that left them in an awkward position – Athrun sprawled flat on his back, Cagalli perched precariously over him, her necklace still caught in his hair and her chest dangerously close to his face, one of her knees placed between his legs, the other to the side.

Clearing his throat, Athrun attempted to avert his eyes from their obvious course, trying not to wince at the slight tug on his hair. "Are you alright?"

Feeling mortified at her inability to remove herself from her position of having her female assets more-or-less thrust into Athrun's face, Cagalli, knowing her face could not possibly turn any redder, managed to squawk out a small request.

"Can you unhook the necklace?"

More than happy to find something else to preoccupy himself with aside from the details on Cagalli's bra in an attempt to ignore what was inside it, Athrun carefully removed his hands from her waist and reached out around her neck, fumbling for the clasp.

Finding it more than slightly difficult from his position, Athrun lifted his torso slightly off the floor, bringing his face up to her neck to try to see the clasp.

The precise moment his fingers found the hook, the door to her bedroom opened, and someone started to say something that was muffled by his position of being rather pressed into Cagalli's neck.

Athrun dropped his head enough to momentarily meet Cagalli's frantic eyes as they shared a look of panic, before both turned to the doorway to see a rather large group of widened eyes staring at them.

With as much dignity as one could after being caught in what would appear to be a very intimate position, Athrun managed to slide his way out from Cagalli, tugging the now loose necklace out of his hair – not caring any longer if he ripped a few hairs out – he pressed the chain into the blonde's hand before striding out the door, past their onlookers.

Now less than satisfied with the knowledge that her face could indeed turn redder, Cagalli's eyes roved over the crowd until she found Meyrin.

The girl, with her strange reddish-pink hair, blinked for a moment as if not knowing how to react, before a sweet smile lit up her face.

"So he's seen you in your underwear, too!" she declared, making Cagalli's nerves bristle and the color fade from her cheeks, to be replaced with a hue that resembled the sudden anger she felt at the implication in that statement.

Striding forward, she slammed the door in Meyrin's face, turning to lean against it, not knowing whether to feel mortified that so many people had seen her unclothed, or horrendously enraged at what she had just heard.

Or why she should be enraged in the first place.

--

_Insanely short. But at least it's something. I'll try to update more soon, even though I'm still computer-less. sniffles_

_Review ? D_


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